WES WILSON
is famously known as the father of psychedelic poster design. He lead the counterculture of the mid 1960s San Francisco into a world of vibrating colors, melting calligraphy, and abstracted combinations of imagery. Through his poster designs, Wilson was bringing his viewers into an alternate reality, influenced by the current political movements, the hallucinations of LSD, and the moving sounds of rock and roll.
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The poster designs of Wilson reflected an
Art Nouveau inspired “acid trip”. They
consisted of vibrating, highly saturated, and
contrasting color combinations along with
organic lettering, and the elegance of the
female form. By 1966, Wilson had invented
the famously known “psychedelic” font, which
looked as though the letters were melting
and morphing across the page. The lettering
is illegible at first glance, which engages the
viewer in to decipher the message on their
own. This puzzle-like design of the type creates
an intimate and participatory relationship
between the design and the viewer.
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Wilson produced visual representations for well known groups of the time period. He was the poster designer for Family Dog Productions, and eventually solely designed for Bill Graham of the Fillmore in San Francisco. Groups featured in Wilson’s work include the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, the Beatles, Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground and Ken Kesey's Acid Tests. During a time of radical social change, such as the civil rights, feminist, and peace movements, along with the development of rock and roll and LSD culture, Wilson’s explosion of illustration, photography, and hand lettering came to define an entire generation.